Islamabad, Pakistan – Rehan Aslam’s household ran a transport and automotive rental enterprise, and grocery shops. Rehan helped run these companies.
However 5 months in the past, the 34-year-old bought his automotive, a Toyota Hiace wagon, for 4.5 million rupees ($16,000) to pay an agent who would assist him go away behind his life in his village, Jora, in Gujrat district of Pakistan’s Punjab province, searching for a future in Europe.
He by no means made it.
Rehan, a father of two ladies and a boy, was amongst 86 individuals who boarded a passenger boat on January 2 close to Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania in West Africa, aiming for the Canary Islands, an archipelago off the coast of northwestern Africa managed by Spain.
Stranded at sea for greater than 13 days, the vessel was ultimately rescued by Moroccan authorities – with solely 36 survivors on board. Rabia Kasuri, Pakistan’s performing ambassador to Morocco, confirmed that no less than 65 Pakistanis had been on board the boat: of them, 43 had been lifeless, whereas 22 survived.
Rehan was amongst those that died.
“He simply wished to get to Europe one way or the other. That was his dream, and he informed us to not create any obstacles in his method,” Mian Ikram Aslam, Rehan’s elder brother, informed Al Jazeera. “All he wished was to hunt higher alternatives outdoors Pakistan for his three kids.”
Pakistan’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs introduced on Saturday that it will repatriate the 22 survivors of the latest boat accident off the coast of Morocco, however there’s little closure on the horizon for the households of those that died.
As an alternative, the tragedy has left in its wake a collection of questions. How did the individuals on the boat die? Why had been they travelling to Europe from West Africa – an unlikely and new route for irregular Pakistani migrants?
And why had been individuals like Rehan, from households with some monetary stability, risking their lives to get to Europe within the first place?
‘Tortured to loss of life’
This incident on the Western Mediterranean route comes simply weeks after 4 different vessels sank within the central Mediterranean in December last year. In these tragedies, 200 individuals had been rescued, however practically 50 had been reported lifeless or lacking, together with no less than 40 Pakistanis.
One of many deadliest shipwrecks within the Mediterranean occurred in June 2023, when greater than 700 individuals, together with practically 300 Pakistanis, died after the Adriana, an ageing fishing trawler, capsized close to the Greek island of Pylos.
Within the newest incident, the Pakistani Overseas Ministry initially introduced on January 16 that the boat had “capsized” close to Dakhla, a port metropolis within the disputed Western Sahara territory managed by Morocco. However households of the victims declare their family members had been “overwhelmed” and “tortured” earlier than being thrown overboard.
Press Launch
Incident of boat capsizing off the coast of Morocco pic.twitter.com/0ZNvrjWf4m
— Ministry of Overseas Affairs – Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) January 16, 2025
Aslam, 49, mentioned survivors from his village reported that pirates on one other boat attacked them, stole their belongings and assaulted passengers with hammers earlier than throwing some into the ocean.
“We had been capable of speak with a few of the surviving boys in Dakhla, who shared how pirates repeatedly attacked their boat for every week, torturing and throwing individuals overboard,” he mentioned.
An analogous account was shared by Chaudhry Ahsan Gorsi, a businessman from Dhola village close to Gujrat metropolis in Punjab province.
Gorsi misplaced his nephews, Atif Shehzad and Sufyan Ali, who paid 3.5 million rupees ($12,500) to brokers to facilitate their journey. Survivors knowledgeable him concerning the brutal circumstances of their deaths.
“These boys bought their land to boost the cash and left final August,” Gorsi informed Al Jazeera. “However I may by no means have imagined they’d meet such a ugly destiny – bodily attacked, tortured and thrown into the water,” he mentioned.
Following the rescue of the boat final week, the Pakistani authorities despatched an investigation crew to Rabat to probe the allegations. Nevertheless, their report has not but been made public.
“We’re nonetheless conducting our investigation and have interviewed the survivors about their experiences,” Rabia Kasuri, Pakistan’s performing ambassador to Morocco, informed Al Jazeera from Rabat, the place she has served for the previous two years. Investigators, she mentioned, had been nonetheless “attempting to determine the small print of what unfolded throughout the days when the boat was stranded within the sea”.
A brand new route
Regardless of being one in every of Pakistan’s most fertile areas, and the house of a number of industries manufacturing digital items equivalent to fridges, followers, sports activities and surgical items, Punjab’s districts of Gujrat, Sialkot, Jhelum, and Mandi Bahauddin have been hubs for individuals seeking to migrate to Europe for many years.
In line with Frontex, the European Union’s border and coastguard company, practically 150,000 irregular migrants from Pakistan have made it to Europe utilizing land and sea routes, since 2009, when the company began preserving information of migrants getting into the European Union.
Most Pakistanis making the journey usually journey to the United Arab Emirates, then take flights to Egypt and Libya earlier than trying a sea journey throughout the Mediterranean.
Kasuri, the performing envoy, mentioned the Western Mediterranean route is rare for Pakistanis in search of irregular migration. However that selection of route is likely to be the consequence of makes an attempt by Frontex and Pakistani authorities to tighten their curbs on irregular migration, mentioned Pakistani officers.
Total, in line with the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), practically 200,000 individuals crossed into Europe by way of numerous Mediterranean routes in 2024, whereas no less than 2,824 had been declared lifeless or lacking.
However whereas these numbers are nonetheless vital, Frontex reported a 38 p.c decline in irregular border crossings into the EU in 2024, marking the bottom ranges since 2021.
Frontex information reveals that whereas simply over 10,000 Pakistanis made it to Europe in 2023, the numbers fell by half the next yr, as about 5,000 individuals entered Europe by way of irregular means utilizing land or sea routes.
Because the Adriana sinking in June 2023, which precipitated nationwide outrage, Pakistani authorities say they’ve elevated and improved their screening to clamp down on human smuggling networks, Munir Masood Marath, a senior official of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Company mentioned. However smugglers, in response, have searched and located new routes.
“This can be a sport of cat and mouse, as we maintain monitoring the smuggling community, additionally they discover totally different routes to hunt and lure individuals to make use of these,” Marath informed Al Jazeera in an interview.
Rehan flew from Faisalabad in Punjab to Dubai. Then to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, after which on to Dakar, Senegal. From Dakar, the agent took Rehan and others of their group by street to Nouakchott, up north alongside the Atlantic coast.
The agent, Aslam mentioned, was recognized to the household. Rehan didn’t face abuse from the agent or his aides and was typically capable of communicate together with his household again residence over the telephone.
Till his loss of life, Rehan’s journey appeared higher than what many undocumented migrants making such journeys need to endure – one thing Aslam knew from his personal expertise.
Europe’s ‘way of life’ lure
Greater than 20 years in the past, in 2003, Aslam, too, had tried a dangerous journey to Europe – by way of land, to Greece. Together with a bunch of fifty to 80 individuals from the Gujrat district, he made his option to Pakistan’s southwestern province Balochistan, from the place smugglers helped him, and others cross the border and enter Iran.
“We saved strolling on foot for months on finish, and once we would decelerate, they [smugglers] would threaten to kill us or generally beat us”, he recalled of his journey.
However after practically two months of strolling and hiding, when the group ultimately reached the Turkiye border, Aslam gave up and determined to return residence.
“I simply informed them that I can’t stroll any extra. I confirmed them blisters on my ft and begged them to let me go,” he mentioned. They let him go. “It’s a miracle I survived that ordeal,” Aslam added.
Since then, the household has constructed its companies, and Aslam, one in every of 5 brothers, mentioned they had been financially safe. The brothers now run a profitable automotive rental enterprise with a “fleet of 10-15 automobiles”, he mentioned, in addition to grocery retailers. In addition they personal a small tract of agricultural land.
“Our household was effectively settled, and Rehan helped me with our enterprise,” Aslam mentioned. “However after failing a number of instances to safe visas for Canada or the UK, he determined to take the danger [going to Europe without documents].”
Marath, the FIA official, identified that whereas financial causes play their half in compelling individuals to undertake such perilous journeys, there may be additionally a social side. Households, even these which are financially steady, see their neighbours, pals, and relations whose sons have made it to Europe flaunting their upward social mobility.
Aslam defined that the lure of wealth, higher alternatives, and the “likelihood to dwell in a extra equitable society” pushed individuals into taking life-threatening dangers.
“There’s such a rot in our society, individuals don’t get justice for small issues,” he mentioned. “So typically, when our automobile is plying between cities, site visitors police cease individuals in search of bribes randomly. For a lot of, it’s half and parcel of doing enterprise right here, however for some, like my brother, they’d sufficient of it.”
Gorsi, too, recalled how his nephews labored in Dubai at a development firm which he had helped arrange earlier than deciding to pursue their European desires.
“Each these boys had been desirous to discover a option to attain Europe. They see the life-style of a few of our fellow villagers who’ve managed to ship their kids to Europe, and the way it gave them upward social mobility. So, these two additionally wished to strive their luck,” he added.
Nonetheless, regardless of his personal journey in 2003, and the loss of life of his nephew in January, Aslam was fatalistic – virtually as if he was making peace with the harmful choices that led to Rehan’s loss of life.
“Our brother made this selection,” he mentioned. “And we knowingly allowed it, regardless of the dangers.”
